The Useless Tree.
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
The two principle texts of Taoism are the Tao te Ching and the Chuang Tzu. Where the Tao is poetic, the Chuang Tzu is prose; together they express the whole of Taoist philosophy, which is based on the"natural" way of things. Chapter 20 (The Mountain Tree) tells the story of the gnarled Oak tree:
Chuang Tzu was walking in the mountains when he saw a huge tree, its branches and leaves thick and lush. A woodcutter paused by its side but made no move to cut it down. When Chuang Tzu asked the reason, he replied, "There's nothing it could be used for!" Chuang Tzu said, "Because of its worthlessness, this tree is able to live out the years Heaven gave it."*
Let's start with the knotty truth: employment opportunities for laid off older workers are statistically not great. Evidence is mainly anecdotal in the entertainment industry, but in the overall labor market, the percentage of older unemployed or underemployed workers (55 and older) has outpaced other age segments since 2010. This statistic includes "discouraged workers;" people who have looked for work in the past 12 months, but not in the past 4 weeks. And of those long-term discouraged workers (those who want a job but haven't looked in over a year), over 35% are over the age of 55.**
If you are unemployed or underemployed, you know this is an uncomfortable and obvious truth. For the entertainment industry, it goes beyond traditional assumptions of age discrimination and into the realm of "everyone is feeling the pain of less work, but more so for me." As an older worker, the reality is that you may not have the time to wait it out until (or if) the employment situation gets better. Alternatively, the thought of transitioning into a new career may seem insurmountable, and perhaps even pointless. Some of the things you might be thinking:
I'm too old to start over; I don't have the energy, so what's the point?
I've built up years of seniority in my work; now I have to start over at the bottom rung?
I'm so close to retirement, maybe I should just take Social Security early?
As a human being, I empathize with the weight of your situation. But as a career coach, I'm tasked with helping you find a path forward. So let's start with this decidedly Taoist premise: everyone knows the use of the useful, but no one knows the use of the useless. It's not an easy concept for the Western mind, much less in our capitalist economy. Another way to put it may sound cliche, but it tracks with Taoist thinking: you're not old, you're experienced.
If we view a layoff through the lens of the Useless Tree, losing your job is not a failure of skill or a function of age, but a dodge from the sharp axe of burnout. Unlike other occupations, I think the entertainment industry still values experience over unbridled but untrained enthusiasm. The nature of the work involves both skill and knowledge, not just a line of workers making widgets or cogs. But it does mean that you need to reassess how you can apply your skillset to another job, hopefully within the industry if that's your desire. You will also need to expand your professional network, and cultivate new connections with people who can see you for your talents, not just your age.
Charles Steinmetz was an electrical engineer. Physically, he was contorted by a hump, a crooked gait from hip dysplasia, and a stunted torso that made his hands, head and feet look out of proportion. But he was a genius that held over 200 patents in electrical engineering. As the story goes, Steinmetz was called to the Ford factory in Dearborn one day because the Ford engineers were having trouble with one of their massive generators. When he arrived, he asked for a notebook, pencil and cot, and spent the next two days inside the plant. At the end of the second day he climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on the side. He then told the Ford engineers that this was the spot where the coil needed repair. His fee for the work was $10,000. Henry Ford demanded an itemized bill, whereupon Steinmetz sent him the invoice as thus:
Making chalk mark on generator: $1
Knowing where to make mark: $9,999
Be like the Useless Tree; too seasoned to be cut down, you can be "shade for a thousand oxen."*
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*Chuang Tzu. The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1968, p. 209.
**Phillips, D. (2023) j"Hidden and Persistent Unemployment Among Older Workers." Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and Department of Economics, The New School for Social Research, Research Note Series 2023-02.
